48 hours of book programming beginning saturday morning at 8 eastern through monday morning at 8 eastern. nonfiction book withs all weekend, every weekend right here on c-span2. >> here's a look at some of what's ahead here on c-span2. next, "the communicators" continues its series of interviews from the international consumer electronics show in las vegas with a discussion on government's role many technology. then president obama awards this year's recipients of the national medals for science, technology and innovation. and after that we're live as policymakers, health care industry leaders and representatives of government gather for a national health policy conference. >> congress returns today to capitol hill. the house comes in at 2 p.m. eastern to take up a small number of bills under suspension of the rules with votes at 6:30. also this week a debate and vote on a measure to require the

president to submit a balanced budget to congress. over in the senate, members also come back at 2 eastern for general speeches. then at about 5:30, a vote on the bill to reauthorize the violence against women act, a domestic violence law that expired in 2011. a final vote on that could happen later this week. members of both parties are attending retreat this week. as a result, the senate will be out on tuesday and wednesday, and the house no legislative business on thursday or friday. live coverage of the house on c-span and the senate here on c-span2. >> host: and you're watching "the communicators" on c-span. we are on location in las vegas at ces international 2013 at the las vegas convention center. here's some of our interviews that we did this week. well, now at the ces international show in las vegas we're joined by representative zoe lofgren, democrat of

california. representative lofgren, what are you doing at ces? >> guest: interestingly enough, this is my very first trip to ces. i've had my staff go in the past, but they asked that i come down and be a panel about immigration which i did this morning, and this afternoon i'm going to look around the hall, and then i'm going to fly home to san jose. so it's been fun so far. >> host: what was your role on the panel, and what was your point of view? >> guest: well, there's a lot of problems with our immigration system, and everybody sees it from the such as they're in -- the situation they're in. so the technology world sees that people who just got their ph.d. in electrical engineering from mit can't get a visa to stay here even if they28 any sense. of course, if you're a farmer, you see your migrant workers don't have their paper, and you're going to have to tuck

your field under, and if you're chucking crabs in maryland, you see your season's going to be destroyed because you don't have workers. the whole thing is a mess, and i have hope we'll have a reform effort that's top to bottom and bipartisan. >> host: you represent a lot of companies out in silicon valley. >> guest: yes. >> host: what do you hear from them and what do you see as the solution to the h-1b h-1b visa problem? >> guest: it's not so much an h-1b problem. it does need reformed. it does have structural problems that can lead to underpaying immigrants to the detriment of the american coworkers. but the real answer is in permanent residents. we're competing on a worldwide stage, and if you've got some hot shot that just got his ph.d. in computer science from stanford, she's getting offers from all over the world. and to say, well, you can stay in some limbo for six years is

not really competitive. so what you want to do is for people we want to have stay here to create jobs -- and that's not just in the it can field, it's throughout the economy -- you need to make it easy for people to stay and create businesses and grow american jobs and help our economy recover. >> host: what's the atmosphere, the climate for potential immigration reform in congress and perhaps the administration? >> guest: well, on the democratic side we've had an interest in immigration reform for quite some time. we have not had that enthusiasm on the republican side. but here's the deal. in november mitt romney lost badly, and part of the reason why was because he got under 30% of the vote among asian voters and under 30% of the vote among latino voters. and analysts have devised that

that is partly because of the republican posture on immigration. so really the republican leadership needs to think do they ever want a republican president again? because these are the fastest-growing demographic groups in the country. and if so, they have to join us and do immigration reform. we're happy to compete for voters on some other subject. let's come together, reform this system that needs it so much. it'll be good for our country. >> host: and this is a priority for the tech community? >> guest: it is. and it's a priority for me. it's something i've been working on for a long, long time. and i just, it's a decision that the republican leadership needs to make. now, i can't make it for them, but i am hopeful that they will decide this is a good thing to put behind them. and i know that we can work together to make it so.

>> host: representative zoe lofgren, what else do you hear from your constituents in the silicon valley area about washington? we've heard from some people it's two different worlds. >> guest: well, it's interesting because in the bay area there aren't very many republicans. i mean, there's not a single republican house member from the bay area, and there's not a single republican in the state senate or the state assembly. i mean, anybody that has to identify their party is a democrat. and that reflects the constituency, not just the elected officials. so i get when i come home people can't understand what republicans are doing, and i find it difficult to explain it, honestly. [laughter] you know, it's an area that supports freedom, that doesn't want to manage somebody else's

religion or somebody else's life. it's an area that just so thed to pass -- just voted to tax themselves so we could have better health care and better schools and better transportation. they look at washington and don't understand the fight in a lot of ways. >> host: specifically when it comes to technology-related issues, though, do you hear anything that your constituents -- >> guest: well, yes. there is concern about innovation and the role that current law has in the area of copyright and patent in stifling innovation. that's difficult to remedy. we had a patent bill that i actually ended up not voting for last year having worked on it for the years -- for 12 years that really didn't do what we'd hoped it would do. we've got an overarching scheme on copyright enforcement that is

probably not that positive in term ors of technology -- terms of technology innovation. i'm sure you all remember the sopa brouhaha of last year. we stopped the overreach from the copyright max laws, but the technology companies -- i'm just talking about individuals who are inventing things and creating things -- feel that there is a problem many terms of -- in terms of the copyright regime and can we come together and make sure that those laws work in an internet age. that's something i'd like to work on, and i'm going to be introducing some bills -- i don't know that they'll pass the first session of congress, but at least to get the discussion going. >> host: when you walk around here at ces, do you see a lot of your constituents? >> guest: oh, sure. i run into a number of people already who i know, and one to have people walking around with me said do you want to go to x, y and z company from your district, i said, well, i go to

those companies all the time. let's go see some companies i don't see. so this afternoon i'm going outside the hall to another hall to visit the start-ups who couldn't afford to come into this hall and to see what's coming at us next. >> host: and they couldn't afford the rent here? >> guest: yeah. so they've got the little tiny boosts in the start-up ideas, and a couple years from now some of them will probably afford to be in this hall. >> host: representative zoe lofgren is a democrat from california. this is "the communicators" on c-span. >> guest: good to see you, peter. >> host: and ces international is held every year in las vegas. it's one of the largest trade shows in the world, about 100,000 people attend this every year. it's focused on technology. "the communicators" is here doing interviews and looking at some of the new technology. here's some more of our programming. former congressman tom davis, what are you doing out here at ces in vegas? >> guest: well, this is where it's a lot more productive here

than congress and my own life. i'm speaking at one of the conferences here and trying to enjoy the show. >> host: what's deloiotte? >> guest: deloiotte is the largest of the big accounting firms, consulting firms, professional services firms in the country. it's a partnership. >> host: since you've retired from congress, is that what you've been doing? >> guest: that's what i've been doing, work anything the consulting practice. >> host: what's the panel that you are headlining -- >> guest: well, i've got an issue on congress tomorrow. i've got a couple other members, and we're going to just talk about the fiscal cliff, we talk about what's happening or not happening in washington and try to let people understand why it's the way it is. for people who don't understand how washington works and how voters work, sometimes we try to demystify it for them. >> host: tom davis, is there a particular angle to legislative policy when it comes to tech companies such as we're seeing out here at ces? >> guest: well, they're conflicted because they tend to be on the social side, the

social issue side tends more with democratic policies on gay rights, abortion, seems to be more organized, affluent, educated societies. but on economic policy, obviously, walk around, free trade. it's not a union type of operation. a more market oriented on this, so they kind of get conflicted between the parties on this. so the politics have been in the bay area culture is the predominant force in people's political ideas. my corner, tyson, a little different orient toward the government to understand those regulatory issues and the like. so i think they're conflicted like everybody else. tech workers tend to be a little more obama than romney, but it's a swing vote once you get away from the social issues. >> host: when it comes to your service in congress, did you push tech issues at all?

>> guest: absolutely, i pushed them. i had a huge technology interest. i did a lot of legislation in that area. we had a y2k bill when it was coming. people were afraid to touch it because of the tort liability and afraid to make corrections because if something went wrong, they'd have a liability on it. so we put a limited liability into place there. i was one of the cosponsors for a bill we had on shareholder derivative suits that basically protected companies from lawsuits that were hitting innovative companies when you get into some of the property issues that, intellectual property issues. government procurement issues. government is not a very efficient procurer of technology. services acquisition reform act the last cybersecurity law to get through congress called fisma. so i was a pretty prolific legislator in those areas. which tended to cross party lines. >> host: well, speaking of the

government procurement process, does it work currently especially when it comes to technology? >> guest: well, the problem with government procurement is, i'll give you an example. i put an addition on my house about a year ago. i didn't have to worry about advertising it. i didn't have to worry about small business set asides or minority set asides. those issues, i didn't have to worry about o protests, and and i got it done pretty efficiently, and i could work it pretty quickly. i didn't have to worry about the buy america act. government procurement has all these bells and whistles on it that try to, basically, look at other government policies and make procurement part of that instead of just looking at getting the cheapest goods for the cheapest price for the taxpayer. we try to pursue too many public policy goals within that procurement system. is so it's, no, it doesn't. the answer is it doesn't work very well. >> host: is there one set of technology tools that the government uses, or does each

department -- >> guest: no, you know, that's one of the difficulties is the policies aren't always congruent. agencies have their own stove pipes, and they don't -- there's no interconnectivity, you know, between the government agencies. it just creates a lot of inefficiencies. in theory, the office of management and budget should be overseeing these kinds of issues between -- in refereeing between the different agencies, but even within agencies you have people procuring different systems that don't integrate very well and as a result of that we spend billions repairing them, billions of dollars sometimes doesn't repair them. and it's pretty inefficient. it's the nature of bureaucracy, the way that these people work up, build their own legacy systems, their own pride in them and don't coordinate with anything around them. peter, it's the same thing that in government the incentives to save money aren't there because if you save money, you don't get the benefit. it goes to somebody who overspent their budget somewhere else. so the incentives in government are just, don't make it very efficient without b somebody at the top coming down hard on them and saying, you know, for the

good of the order, overseeing it and making them -- [inaudible] >> host: but isn't it up to congress to make the system, to create the laws that make the -- >> guest: well, heaven help us if you leave it to congress. but the executive branch ought to be able to do that. the executive bran of. has the authority -- branch has the authority to do it if it should choose to do so. every president until reagan had authority. if you could reorganize the way you wanted to, you'd have to bring it to congress for an up or down vote without an amendment. they get into all these jurisdictional battles, and you end up with the department of homeland security. you design a thoroughbred, and you end up with a three-hump camel. so it's the nature of government. government operates openly, transparency, you're -- the bigger your budget, the more powerful you are. in business it's the opposite. you make a quick, fast decision. it's out of scrutiny.

you make a lot of mistakes in business, but you make a lot of decisions. in government you tend to put off those decisions because there's no reward in making them. >> host: tom davis, you used to be chair of the government affairs committee. >> guest: government reform and oversight. >> host: and represented also a tech area, tyson's corner in virginia. >> guest: right. >> host: does congress understand technology? >> guest: well, that's, i mean, some members. people like darrell issa, just hugely proficient in the area. he built up a tech company and made hundreds of millions of dollars doing it, and then you have some members who don't carry a blackberry. it's just like the population as a whole. but, you know, understanding the technology and how to use it is different than understanding its applications, understanding government policies that will encourage innovation and encourage efficiencies versus policies that discourage it. intellectual property rights. congress coming down one way or the other could have a huge effect in discouraging

innovation. tax can have, your tax policies can encourage or discourage innovation. our immigration policy right now where someone comes over here and gets a ph.d. and we kick them out of the country and make them go to their home country to compete against us. it doesn't make any sense to those of us who understand the way the world works, but it's the way the world currently works. so, yeah, government -- congress can do a lot, and you don't have to be proficient on your iphone or blackberry to understand the applications of tech policy and what makes it work and what doesn't. >> host: what's your area of expertise for deloiotte? >> guest: i get a lot of the i.t. area, information technology. also a lot of -- look, even if you have the right policy in government, making it work, basically, is very, very tough. the implementation of that, if you will, very, very difficult. where deloiotte excels is we take a look at what the policy is and then how do you integrate it and make it work. we're the largest her orier/acquisition firm in the

world the in terms of advisory. and we bring that source to government. so when you're trying to accomplish the same goals with less people and fewer dollars, those are the kinds of things we excel at. but sometimes the incentives in government are such that why would i do that? then my budget goes down. we have, i know a company that has this software that basically tests software much faster, ten times faster or than the government currently does it, but you don't need the people to do it. you can test it quicker and faster, but the managers say what does this do to my people? how do i protect them? so government just has a different set of incentives than the private sector does because it's a monopoly. and so change comes hard. >> host: over the past couple of years, we've seen google and facebook and their washington offices grow exponentially. >> guest: right. >> host: we did an interview with the executive vice president of samsung earlier here at ces, and he mentioned that they have one person in washington.

um, would you recommend to a panasonic, to a sony that they beef up or keep their washington offices strong? >> guest: well, you know, microsoft didn't have much of a washington office until all of a sudden the feds came after them on antitrust issues. and then you get the justice department going after you on something else, and then you get the sec on something else, then congress passes some law, and your whole business plan's out the window. they recognize -- i mean, it's unfortunate companies need that. but the reality today there are so many conflicting interests that somebody if they have an advantage in washington will write the rules to benefit them. and that can undo your business plan. so, yeah, i'd say to sony -- these companies come out of countries that don't have that kind of tradition. we're a full democracy where lobbying is embedded in the constitution. these countries it's a little bit different. and so they're a little late to the party on stuff. google learned the hard way, but google's been very successful. susan molinari is doing a great

job there. they've learned the hard way that if you don't have that washington presence and the tendency of a lot of these tech firms is we don't want the government, we don't need the government, let us just innovate on our own. that's great in theory, but all of a sudden the rules change, and you're out the window. >> host: what do you miss about congress? >> guest: very little. i miss the foreign trips, and i miss the members. but the dysfunctionalty right now, i'm a lot happier on the outside. i left voluntarily, undefeated and unindicted which is the way you want to leave the place. i was turned out as committee chairman. i'd been in leadership for two cycles and three cycles as committee chairman, a ranking member and a subcommittee chairman -- >> host: and you ran the national republican -- >> guest: yeah. i ran the congressional campaign successfully two times. that's a pretty good run. and so it's just time for me to do something else. i didn't get potomac fever. you know when members just gotta stay in washington, and they crave the -- the only known cure is embalming fluid.

and i just, i have, i was ready to do something else. i respect the people that have stayed there trying to make the most of a difficult situation, but for me it was just time to move on and do something else. >> host: and this is "the communicators" on c-span, and we've been talking with former republican congressman tom davis. and up next on "the communicators" an interview with the ceo and chairman of panasonic north america. now on your screen is joe taylor who is the ceo and chairman of panasonic north america. mr. taylor, we're here in las vegas at ces international. what products is panasonic debuting? >> guest: well, peter, first, thanks for having me. and second, i think the interesting thing about what we're doing here today is not just introducing some new consumer electronics, but really rolling out the new image of panasonic globally. and that's a company that's

almost a hundred years old that east $100 billion and has portfolio products far beyond consumer electronics. >> host: such as? >> guest: well, our b to b space is really, really growing for us. we have major market shares in the avionics industry, in-flight entertainment. automotive industry far beyond speakers and radios. complete multimedia interfaces and navigation systems. we have sports and entertainment venues as well as a very large energy business. and these are things, shame on us, but we haven't made people well aware of even though we're a hundred years old. >> host: well, mr. taylor, we are aware of panasonic televisions, cameras, things like that. you've got a brand called your tv. what is that? >> guest: your tv is the latest innovation. people want their content the

way they want it when they want it. they want to be able to communicate with each other, they want to use twitter, they want to see youtube, they want to shop. we're enabling that in a custom fashion on your tv. so we use facial recognition and voice recognition. you walk into a room, and you say my tv, and immediately the screen shows your home page. it's really the coolest thing. >> host: is it on the market? >> guest: it will be on the market this spring. >> host: 4k, oled. what are these terms? >> guest: so 4k is the latest innovation in terms of high resolution. it's four times the resolution of what you have on your hd-tv at home. it's got the same qualities as digital cinemas that you've been visiting around the world. when you go see a movie, that's 4k resolution, we can bring that into your home. oled is another technology for

displays. so we had crts for many years, those are the -- the it's the old, big old boxes. then the next one was plasma, led, lcd, the next is oled which is much more organic. in fact, o stands for organic les. and it's literally pape or thin, and we can -- paper thin, and we can bend it. it's the most amazing thing. you have to go over to our booth to see it. >> host: when you say organic, what do you mean? >> guest: we use a phosphorous rather than semiconductors as the activating agent. so it's much greener. much lower energy consumption than any display on the market. >> host: joe taylor, what happened to 3-d? is 3-d television successful? it was all the rage here last year. >> guest: i don't think anything happened to it. i think 3-d is still developing. there's more and more content coming out all of the time. i think the biggest impediment to 3-d still remains the glasses. and i think as 4k develops, i

think the future for glassesless -- that doesn't even sound right, 3-d without glasses, how about that? i think that future becomes more imminent. and i think then you'll really see an explosion in 3-d. >> host: in your keynote here at ces international, two topics that you brought in. the cloud and energy efficiency. what did you talk about? >> guest: well, the reality is they're both kind of related. the cloud allows us ways to collect, store and analyze data in ways that we've never done before. so as it relates to energy, every device that plugs in your home can be connected to the cloud and send data. as we analyze this data, we have new ways of helping you save energy in ways that we never dreamed possible before. we can manage the entire home electrically in the most

efficient way than you could have ever imagined, and we do that through the cloud. the cloud also provides many other opportunities for us, but in the end the cloud is a big server x all this data's coming in, and now we have ways to analyze this data in a very useful manner. >> host: what about apps? does panasonic use apps? >> guest: we don't make any app, but we create operates systems that are open -- operating systems that are open. the operating system for your tv is a very open architecture which means app developers all around the world can create apps for these tvs, similar to what's done on smartphones today. >> host: mr. taylor, you're the first north american ceo nonjapanese, correct? >> guest: i am. >> host: what's it like bridging the two cultures and the business cultures as well? >> guest: i don't know if i want to answer that question. no, it's been, it's been very interesting. it's been very challenging.

and i say that if panasonic waited 50 years for me, they should have done a lot better. >> host: want to ask you about u.s. jobs with panasonic. how many people are employed? >> guest: in north america right now we have approximately 15,000 employees. >> host: 15,000? >> guest: right. >> host: in what capacity? >> guest: well, everything from manufacturing through sales, marketing, engineering and r&d. a complete range of jobs that you would expect in any major corporation. >> host: when it comes to r&d expenditures, do you have a set amount or a set percentage that you put towards r&d? >> guest: we don't structure r&d that way, but it ends up to be kind of a percentage of revenue. but it isn't budgeted that way. we look at r&d business by business, and businesses that are growing spend more in r&d, and businesses that aren't growing or that we don't anticipate to grow perhaps we

spend less. but we have six r&d sites in knot america alone. -- north america alone. >> host: is the north american market unique? >> guest: well, we like to think it's unique. but what's unique about north america, what can't be disputed is roughly it constitutes 25% of the world gdp. it is by far the largest market in the world. the united states itself is the only developed nation on earth whose population is still growing. so from that standpoint, it makes it a very, very interesting market. some things in common we merging markets and, of course, the most advanced marketplace and the most competitive in the world. >> host: joe taylor, how much time do you spend on regulatory and policy issues with washington, d.c.? >> guest: as little as i possibly can. we have a whole organization of people who are very capable of dealing with that very frustrating process. and i'm very happy to let them do their jobs and stay as

distant as i possibly can. >> host: but as north american chairman, you have to be aware. >> guest: i'm involved, and i'm aware, and it's a mess, frankly. it's just a mess. >> host: why? >> guest: it makes it very difficult for business. so businesses can deal with anything but uncertainty, but uncertainty. it's very difficult to make investment decisions and expect any kind of return on investment when you have no way to predict the future. and our difficulty right now is there's no consistency or certainty in our policy decisions. and, in fact, i think it's become well beyond politics into ideology, and there's no compromise in ideology. so it's difficult as a business person today. >> host: joe taylor, what keeps you up at night when you think ten years down the road about what panasonic will be, how people will be watching tv, how your products will